Search location by ZIP code

NEWS ARCHIVE

London Borough evacuating 800 homes due to safety concerns following fire ​

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 2:55 PM EDT Jun 24, 2017

London Borough evacuating 800 homes due to safety concerns following fire ​

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 2:55 PM EDT Jun 24, 2017

London Borough evacuating 800 homes due to safety concerns following fire ​

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 2:55 PM EDT Jun 24, 2017

The London Borough of Camden to evacuating 800 homes in tower blocks because of safety concerns following a devastating fire that killed at least 79 people.London authorities began inspecting buildings near Grenfell Tower where the fire broke out and injured several people.

London police are considering filing manslaughter charges related to the fire.

Advertisement

The Metropolitan Police on Friday confirmed residents' suspicions that the June 14 inferno at Grenfell Tower was touched off by a refrigerator fire. The department also said exterior cladding attached to the 24-story public housing project during a recent renovation failed safety tests conducted by investigators, and that police have seized documents from a number of organizations.

Eleven buildings have now been identified as having combustible cladding such as that used on the Grenfell Tower. The cladding is being studied amid fears that the panels fueled the fire in the 24-story building that was engulfed in less than an hour.

Residents of the public housing complex being evacuated in north London because of fire safety concerns say they are both angry and frightened about being forced from their homes.

Resident Michelle Urquhart says she’s angry because residents were assured as late as Thursday that the problem was being addressed.

The Camden Council decided to empty about 800 households in five buildings it owns on Friday. Expedited inspections heightened concerns about exterior insulation panels like the ones on Grenfell Tower, a high-rise where a June 14 fire killed at least 79 people.

Resident Shirley Philips, who lives in one of the evacuated buildings, told British broadcaster she was given no notice before she was asked to pack up and leave.

She says: “Why have they left it ’til half past eight on Friday night to start getting residents out? Where do they think we’re all going?”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan says there was a “particular set of circumstances on this estate that make this necessary.”